Author: suburbandaddy

Parenting Poll Of The Week – Homeschooling?

I’ve been hearing a lot about homeschooling lately. Frankly, I don’t get it. I’m a live and let live kinda guy, so I don’t mind if people want to homeschool their kids. Knock your self out. I just don’t get WHY anyone would want to in the first place.

I can see if maybe you live in the wilderness somewhere, and the nearest school is 50 miles away, it might make sense to homeschool. Or, maybe if you are, in fact, a teacher, and want to give homeschooling a go, I’ll buy it. But those cases aside, I simply do not get it.

Why would you think you could do a better job that an entire building of people whose job it is to teach? And, in the case of public schools, it costs nothing. Why is this bad, again?

I could do my own dry cleaning. I could make my own clothes. I could cut my own hair. I could plow my own roads. I could deliver my own babies. But I choose to let the professionals do it.

So, I pose the question to you…

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Big Event This Weekend

I’ve written a lot about the difficulties we’ve had with Thing 1 and potty training.? I guess it’s to be expected since he’s our first one and we learn as we go.? It’s what experts call the “guinea pig syndrome”.

We have tried very hard not to push Thing 2 to use the potty until he is ready.? He actually started going potty some time ago.? At preschool, he goes all the time, and his diaper is rarely wet.? At home, he almost always refuses to go.? But we don’t push him.

Now, his teacher is saying he is ready.? We’ve thought so, too, for a while now, but were reluctant.? So we’ve decided this weekend will be the big switch over.? We’ll get out the big boy underwear and make a big deal.

The way I see it, this can go one of two ways.? Either he embraces the potty and never looks back (I’ve heard legends of this happening), or we crash and burn, and we’re in for a rough weekend.? If that’s the case, at least I’ll have plenty of entertaining blog material for Monday.

Wish me luck.

Secret Life Of A Soccer Mom: More Dad Bashing

I watched a new show on TLC last night called The Secret Life Of A Soccer Mom.? The premise is a SAHM swaps places with her husband for a few days, and she gets to work in the career she gave up prior to staying home.? At the end, they offer the job for real and she must decide whether to stay home or go back to work.

Let me state, for the record, that I fully, 100% support stay at home moms and working moms.? Both are difficult in their own ways and its a personal decision, yada yada.

My issue with the show is that the classic Mr Mom stereotype is shown for the dad.? You know, that dads don’t know how to take care of their kids.? And if they are left alone, the house will fall into disaster and chaos.

Puh-lease !#$#@%

At least in Jon and Kate Plus 8 (which I also watched last night), they get past the old stereotypes and show true reality TV.

One Reason I’m Glad I Have Three Boys

So I’m in Panera right now, enjoying some daddy time (thanks SuburbanMommy!), and I can’t help overhearing am hanging on every word, listening to the table next to me. A mom and her 15 year old daughter are meeting with a party planner to discuss what I’m guessing is her sweet sixteen party.

Just some of the juicy tidbits…75 of her closest friends. Hotel. DJ. Professional photographer and video. Red carpet and strobe lights (no joke). Limousine. Custom invitations.

Truly THE party of the season. I’m going to ask if I can come.

When the planner asked what was the most important feature, what she wanted her friends to remember about the party, the girl said “I want it to be better than my friend Kayla’s who is having her party the month before”. Apparently, Kayla has already “stolen” many of her party theme ideas, and the coolest venue.

I’ve heard that boys are tougher when they are young, but once they become teenagers, girls are a nightmare. I believe it. Not to mention more expensive.

Does This Make Me A Bad Parent?

Like the toddler he is, Thing 2 is always in a state of perpetual sound and motion. If he isn’t jumping, singing, dancing, running, or asking questions, then he is crying, whining, fighting, or throwing something.

There is, however, one time when he stops all of the above activity and remains stationary and quiet, for many minutes at a time. It’s when he has, what we call in our house, a DD (that’s Dirty Diaper to you non-parent readers).

He likes to find a quiet spot, usually where his play animals are, and he’ll “do his business” so to speak. Thing 2 is somewhat potty trained for #1, and he doesn’t like to tell when he has a DD. So he’ll just keep playing quietly until I come over and change his diaper.

On occasion, I have known about the DD, but was enjoying the peace and quiet too much, so I didn’t change it right away. Maybe 5, 10 minutes. OK, 40 minutes. On occasion. OK, every weekend.

This isn’t that bad, right?? You know you do it, too.

Parenting Poll Of The Week – Which Is Worse?

Teletubbies is the most annoying kid show based on last week’s poll. Can’t disagree with that one.

Having been sick the last couple of days, I think it’s worse when I’m sick, rather than the kids. When you are sick, the kids still get up at 5:30am, still whine, cry, fight, and make VERY LOUD NOISES.

Unlike my job, there are no “sick days” included in the parenting benefits package.

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More Momnesia

OK, Momnesia must be real news now, because the Today Show just had a segment on it.

Also, as I lay in bed watching the Today Show this morning, sick, deciding if I should go to work, I also enjoyed a segment entitled Why it is Unethical To Go To Work When You Are Sick. Not kidding. Once I saw that, it was an easy decision to stay home.

Momnesia Is Hardly News

USA Today has a big article today on a condition known as “momnesia”. The basic premise is that new moms (and dads) are subject to “mental fuzziness and memory lapses that set in shortly after childbirth“. The primary causes are stress and sleep deprivation. No, really, it’s true.

At what point does this become a condition or newsworthy? I have no argument with anything in the article itself. But, come on, stating the obvious and dubbing a new name, momnesia, are hardly worthy of front page newspaper coverage. I realize USA Today is not exactly in the upper echelon of news source, but still.

Here are some highlights from the article.

One mom “occasionally leaves wet laundry in the washing machine or forgets to return phone calls“. — The horror! I once forgot to put the juice back in the refrigerator. Call the New York Times!

“Her son’s first few weeks of life have become a blur“? — No kidding.

Another mom “burned her favorite teapot by leaving it on the stove“. — Uh, I was doing this long before I had kids.? What does that say about my memory?